Man knocks out robber who interrupted his proposal

Ally Hirschlag is a producer/actor/writer who lives in Brooklyn, NY and buys way too many toys for her cats. She contributes to several publications, including Bustle, and The Nerve, and enjoys writing about all things woman. In her spar...

This guy was not going to let a robbery attempt ruin his well-planned proposal

Proposals are often stressful for the person doing the proposing, especially if their intended doesn't know it's coming. There's always pressure for everything to go perfectly, because it's a moment you'll hopefully want to remember for the rest of your lives.

However, even with that in mind, there's no way Nicholas Anderson could have been prepared for the, shall we say, hiccup that interrupted his proposal to his girlfriend Deanna Deal.

Anderson had been working on his proposal idea for some time with Deal's son Brighton. They finally came up with the idea to do it at Salsarita's Mexican restaurant in Hickory, North Carolina, and in no time, the night of the dinner was upon them. Anderson had managed to keep Deal in the dark up until that point, so everything was going according to plan... until a man named Graham Wilson Kiziah walked through the door and tried to rob the place. This was his third attempt at robbing this particular Salsarita's that month.

It sounds like something out of a movie, right? You can imagine a nervous guy about to get down on one knee when he hears in the background, "Everybody be cool, this is a robbery!" However, instead of being totally thrown by the surprising turn of events, Anderson springs into action and puts the robber into a choke-hold, effectively knocking him out cold. Talk about a real-life action hero!

If Deal wasn't planning to marry this guy before, she certainly is now. Anderson described the scenario for NBC News, "The manager came to the door and locked the door. The guy behind the manager pushed him out of the way and unlocked the door." At that moment, Anderson saw his chance to grab Kiziah before he made it out the door and took him down. The whole thing apparently happened super fast, and Deal acknowledged that her man knew how to handle these types of situations. While it may seem like the ordeal threw a wrench into Anderson's proposal plans, if anything, it fanned the fire of the ultimate moment, and pretty much guaranteed the couple a proposal they'll never forget.

However, considering how what had just happened may have tainted things somewhat, Anderson decided to take Deal and Brighton to his backup spot, nearby Winkler Park, to actually pop the question. Despite everything that had transpired, she still had no idea the proposal was coming. Not surprisingly, Anderson was much more relaxed now about getting down on one knee. "After all that happened, asking her to marry me wasn't near as bad." Needless to say, she said "yes."

Now let's just hope this doesn't inspire a trend of guys staging robberies to set the mood for their own proposals. Remember, just like with most things having to do with romance, it really only works if the moment is spontaneous.